Lower School Faculty - Kindergarten / Karen Dempster and Carol Lareau

Kindergarten News

                                                                             May 14, 2008

Dear Parents,

It is hard to believe we are in our final month of school. It feels like the year has just flown by!

We are ready to complete our travels around the world and are heading home to North America. It is always fun learning about other places, but there is no place like home. The focus of this unit will be the United States and our national symbols. We will start by creating a map of North America using a marble painting technique. We will read about Betsy Ross designing our first flag and the children will sew their own flags using yarn and plastic canvas. Some of the books we will be reading are The True Book of North America, The American Flag, and The Flag We Love. 

For math, we will be talking about analog clocks. We will estimate time using only the hour hand and discuss the vocabulary words clockwise, midnight, A.M., and P.M. Later in the week we will explore rulers and how they can be used to draw a straight line and measure the length of an object. Using ten pennies we will play a game using a paper plate to create addition equations. We will review nickel exchanges for pennies as well.

For our language lessons we will be introducing the magic E. This is called the vowel-consonant-E syllable type. The vowel makes the long sound when there is a final E and the E is silent. We will contrast closed syllable words with magic E words. Here are some examples of words they will be reading:

can     cane  rob     robe       bit    bite      cub    cube   hop   hope.

Please continue to practice the sight word cards at home. If you are using them in order, it’s time to shuffle the deck. We are working on recognizing all 30 cards now. The words were, where, and what seem to be the most difficult for the children.

We are quickly approaching Celebrate America Day on June 3. We would like to have a table representing each of the seven continents. Both classes will visit your table to review or learn new information about the continent. Last year some of the tables did a quick and simple art project while others offered a little treat to eat. It needs to be easy and fast. In August some of you signed up to help us with a continent. This is what we have:

Africa- Lee Smith and Gretchen Brown and Tommy Green

Asia- Bradshaws

Europe- John Delaloye and Kevin and Lisa Fox and Josh Bernstein

Australia- Misty Masiello 

As you can see we still need volunteers for 3 of the continents. If you would be willing to lend a hand, please let us know.

Looking Ahead:

Monday, May 19 Come and meet the new first grade teacher Leanne Taliaferro in the courtyard at 2:45

Thursday, May 22 Field Day begins at 12:30

Friday, May 23 No Classes/ Commencement at 10:30

May 29 Fifth Grade Concert at 2:00

Friday, May 30  Field Trip to the Nature Center: depart CDS at 9:30 and returning by 1:30. The children need to bring a disposable bag lunch including a drink. We will not have a microwave available.

Have a wonderful week!

Carol and Karen